Celebration, Florida by The Felice Brothers | Album Review

To some people, this will be an introduction to a band that they have never heard of. To others it’s just another quality release from the delightfully sincere The Felice Brothers. Ian Felice, James Felice, Christmas, Greg Farley and David Turbeville are the band of two brothers and lifetime good friends stemming from the small community outside of New York in Palenville.
Their music has been hailed magnificent by many a music magazine and of course music blogs. There is something very enchanting about this band and I believe it is the uncanny resemblance on certain records to the ultimate music singer and songwriter, Bob Dylan. The Black Keys have a similar vibe as well and also like Damien Rice in places but only if he got up off his backside, stopped being so depressing all of the time and picked up the tempo a little.
Celebration, Florida is the fourth LP released. It is full throughout but without being loud. It’s Urban Folk if you like. Indie without any distortion. Acoustic but not minimised to just the guitar. Slightly country without being at all country. Roots music. Soulful, honest and inspirational storytelling.
There are big band instruments with brass, accordions and pianos on Honda Civic with a beautiful supporting bassline with a flavoursome tinge you would get from an Irish Bar. Absolutely stunning. Jovial with lazy drunken panache.
Ponzi – video below – begins rather quite hauntingly and with a slightly bitchy attitude, having a stab at a wealthy character who is up their own backside and various forms of skullduggery. Musically, this one record is phenomenal. An electro bass that kicks in within the middle of the record is highly infectious and it grabs you from behind your ears as the rest of the track builds. We then dip into a rebellious assortment of grunge as the music begins to ossify before teetering off into a fade. Superior craftsmanship within the songwriting and production. Or just perhaps an astonishing fluke. But this being their fourth album, I doubt it.
I love the candid bluntness within the songs of treachery and the optimism that you feel when listening to stories of despair.
This is mature for a bunch of twenty-somethings. Such soul and wisdom they could easily be mistaken for 50 odd. Only with the progressing vivaciousness that occurs on some tracks such as Cus’s Catskill Gym and the adolescent style of soft rock guitar fill-ins on Refrain that you realise that here is young blood in here.
Classic, beautiful and innovative. Great work.
Celebration, Florida by The Felice Brothers is released by Fat Possum Records and is out now.
























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